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Walt Disney Pictures via Everett Collection
Johnny Depp used to be relevant.
Films like Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood established Depp as an idiosyncratic performer willing to appear in offbeat projects. Who can forget his iconic performance in Jim Jarmusch's revisionist Western Dead Man, or in Terry Gilliam's drug odyssey Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? It seemed, for a while anyway, that Depp was a different kind of movie star. He was weird, for sure, but also accessible, and hundreds of teenage girls across the world idolized him and cherished his abnormality.
Then came Captain Jack Sparrow. To be fair, the first Pirates of the Caribbean is a great film, but the rest of the series represents a lazy attempt to cash in on the original chapter's unmatched excellence. Depp turned Sparrow into a caricature, and with each Pirates installment, the magic of the original performance rapidly diminished. If Depp wasn't making a Pirates movie, he could be seen in the latest Tim Burton project, or in The Rum Diary, a film that might as well be an inferior sequel to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Not all of Depp's recent movies are trash, but most of them are, and at the very least they suggest that Depp is more interested in making money than making quality movies.
Depp's forthcoming big studio film Transcendence might just be the final nail in the coffin. Is Depp, the once enigmatic auteur performer of the 1990s, officially over?
There's certainly room for a comeback, but at the present moment, all signs suggest that Depp has lost his cultural and cinematic significance. Like Will Smith, Depp continues to appear in Hollywood blockbusters and makes a ton of money for doing so, but his films are hardly as influential or important as they were in the 1990s. Moreover, I think we can all agree that The Tourist and The Lone Ranger don't work as mainstream entertainment in the way the first Pirates does. This is important to point out, because it's not necessarily Depp's constant appearance in mainstream films that is his problem (after all, it works well for Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney), but his inability to distinguish between intelligent blockbusters and mindless drek.
I understand that show business is tough to crack, and everyone, even Depp, needs to make a living. Who am I, after all, to criticize his career choices? I get it. But Depp has committed arguably the worst sin possible for a movie star. He's spent years selling the audience on his unique star persona, only to appear in lame tent-pole productions that are void of creativity, originality, and respect for the audience. Was this Depp's plan all along, or did he unintentionally fall off track at some point?
We'll never know, but one thing is certain: the jig is up, and the name Johnny Depp barely generates excitement from the same people who hung his poster on their bedroom walls. What do you think? Cast your vote below.
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Warner Bros.
Give Martin Freeman an empty room and he'll give you comedy. The best parts of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — an admittedly mishandled movie in large — involved his subdued grimaces, his Chaplinian waddling, and the way he carried himself with equal parts neurosis and snark in every scene. If there is one primary misstep of An Unexpected Journey's terrifically improved sequel, The Desolation of Smaug, it is the spiritual absence of Bilbo Baggins.
Freeman's good-natured but disgruntled Hobbit takes a backseat to the Dwarf team in this chapter of Peter Jackon's three-part saga, distributing the heavy lifting among the front lines of the bearded mooks. Thankfully, we're not shafted with too much "Thorin's destiny" backstory, instead focusing on the trek forward, through far more interesting terrain than we got last time around. The Dwarves voyage through a trippy woodland that'll conjur fond memories of The Legend of Zelda's unnavigable forest levels and inside the borders of Lake-town, a man-occupied working class monarchy that is more vivid and living than any place we have seen yet in the series. And while Unexpected Journey's goblin caverns might have been cool to look at, none of the quests in Desolation feel nearly as close to a tangential detour. Every step the Dwarves take is one that beckons us closer to the central, increasingly engaging story.
Desolation is not entirely without its curiosities. While Gandalf's mission to meet the Necromancer serves to connect the Hobbit trilogy to the Lord of the Rings movies, the occasional cuts over to the wizard's pursuits are primarily distracting and just a bit dull. Although we're happy to welcome the Elf race back into our Middle-earth adventures, it's easy to imagine a version of this story that didn't involve side characters like Legolas and Kate... I mean, Tauriel... and still felt whole (perhaps even more cohesive). The latter's love affair with hot Dwarf Kili seems like a last minute addition to the canon, and one not built on anything beyond the cinematic rule that two sexually compatible attractive people should probably have something brewing alongside all the action.
Warner Bros.
But the most egregious of crimes committed by Desolation is, unquestionably, the shafting of Bilbo Baggins to secondary status. Yes, he proves himself a savior to his fellow travelers four times in the film, but long stretches of action go by without so much as a word from the wide-eyed burglar. When he finally takes center stage in his theatrical face-off with Smaug — an exercise in double-talk reminiscent of Oedipus outsmarting the Sphinx — the film picks up with a new, cool energy, with a chilling fun laced around the impending doom of their back-and-forth. We've been waiting since the first frames of Unexpected to see how the dragon material will pay off, and it does in spades... albeit in the final third of Desolation, but with equal parts gravitas and fun, to reunite us with our Tolkien passions once more.
Benedict Cumberbatch's dragon doesn't do much to subvert expectation — he's slithering, sadistic, vain, manipulative, and vaguely Londonian. But tradition feels good here. Smaug's half hour spent toying with the mousey Bilbo (who does get a chance to showcase his aptitude at small-scale physical comedy here) is terrific in every way.
Its Hobbit problem aside, Desolation proves itself worthy of Bilbo's past proclamation. "I'm going on an adventure!" more than pays off here, in the form of mystifying boat rides, edge-of-your-seat efforts in dragon slaying, and the most joyful action set piece we've seen in years. Twelve Dwarves, twelve barrels, and one roaring river amounts for enough fun to warrant your trip to the theater for this latest outing into Middle-earth.
3.5/5
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Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas consists of six stories set in various periods between 1850 and a time far into Earth's post-apocalyptic future. Each segment lives on its own the previous first person account picked up and read by a character in its successor creating connective tissue between each moment in time. The various stories remain intact for Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) Lana Wachowski's and Andy Wachowski's (The Matrix) film adaptation which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The massive change comes from the interweaving of the book's parts into one three-hour saga — a move that elevates the material and transforms Cloud Atlas in to a work of epic proportions.
Don't be turned off by the runtime — Cloud Atlas moves at lightning pace as it cuts back and forth between its various threads: an American notary sailing the Pacific; a budding musician tasked with transcribing the hummings of an accomplished 1930's composer; a '70s-era investigatory journalist who uncovers a nefarious plot tied to the local nuclear power plant; a book publisher in 2012 who goes on the run from gangsters only to be incarcerated in a nursing home; Sonmi~451 a clone in Neo Seoul who takes on the oppressive government that enslaves her; and a primitive human from the future who teams with one of the few remaining technologically-advanced Earthlings in order to survive. Dense but so was the unfamiliar world of The Matrix. Cloud Atlas has more moving parts than the Wachowskis' seminal sci-fi flick but with additional ambition to boot. Every second is a sight to behold.
The members of the directing trio are known for their visual prowess but Cloud Atlas is a movie about juxtaposition. The art of editing is normally a seamless one — unless someone is really into the craft the cutting of a film is rarely a post-viewing talking point — but Cloud Atlas turns the editor into one of the cast members an obvious player who ties the film together with brilliant cross-cutting and overlapping dialogue. Timothy Cavendish the elderly publisher could be musing on his need to escape and the film will wander to the events of Sonmi~451 or the tortured music apprentice Robert Frobisher also feeling the impulse to run. The details of each world seep into one another but the real joy comes from watching each carefully selected scene fall into place. You never feel lost in Cloud Atlas even when Tykwer and the Wachowskis have infused three action sequences — a gritty car chase in the '70s a kinetic chase through Neo Seoul and a foot race through the forests of future millennia — into one extended set piece. This is a unified film with distinct parts echoing the themes of human interconnectivity.
The biggest treat is watching Cloud Atlas' ensemble tackle the diverse array of characters sprinkled into the stories. No film in recent memory has afforded a cast this type of opportunity yet another form of juxtaposition that wows. Within a few seconds Tom Hanks will go from near-neanderthal to British gangster to wily 19th century doctor. Halle Berry Hugh Grant Jim Sturgess Jim Broadbent Ben Whishaw Hugo Weaving and Susan Sarandon play the same game taking on roles of different sexes races and the like. (Weaving as an evil nurse returning to his Priscilla Queen of the Desert cross-dressing roots is mind-blowing.) The cast's dedication to inhabiting their roles on every level helps us quickly understand the worlds. We know it's Halle Berry behind the fair skinned wife of the lunatic composer but she's never playing Halle Berry. Even when the actors are playing variations on themselves they're glowing with the film's overall epic feel. Jim Broadbent's wickedly funny modern segment a Tykwer creation that packs a particularly German sense of humor is on a smaller scale than the rest of the film but the actor never dials it down. Every story character and scene in Cloud Atlas commits to a style. That diversity keeps the swirling maelstrom of a movie in check.
Cloud Atlas poses big questions without losing track of its human element the characters at the heart of each story. A slower moment or two may have helped the Wachowskis' and Tykwer's film to hit a powerful emotional chord but the finished product still proves mainstream movies can ask questions while laying over explosive action scenes. This year there won't be a bigger movie in terms of scope in terms of ideas and in terms of heart than Cloud Atlas.
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You know the old adage that famous people don't eat? Not true, America! While the days of ice chips, coffee, and cigarette diets may exist for some, others are getting in on the noms. But even still--some of those celebrities felt their love of food and eating wasn't being heard. So, they decided to take it a step further and write cookbooks.
Celebrity cookbooks are a funny thing: unless you're a celebrity chef, they seem like a strange career choice. So why do they keep making them? Well, it's a pretty easy way to convey who you are as a person to your fans without doing much of anything. Compile some family recipes (or get another chef to do it for you!). Take some pretty pictures and TA-DA! In that vein, it seems only likely that if you can judge a celebrity on their cookbook, you can definitely judge the reader, as well. So now's your chance to finally know the truth about yourself, thanks to your favorite celebrity cookbook.
If The Tucci Cookbook is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
You enjoy a sturdy red wine and a little Sinatra in the afternoons. When cooking a pasta dish (handpicked by the Tucc himself), you like to hum "A Little Night Music" to your stewing tomatoes. You own pajama sets. You indulge in the occasional cigar on your porch on late autumnal evenings. Most of your furniture enjoys a cherry wood finish.
You frequently host dinner parties with your friends and always make a point to try and cook the best food that anyone's ever had. You laugh it off with a "oh, this old recipe? Wasn't my best!" You don't drive a Prius, but rather a high-end hybrid like a Lexus. You go on vacations that solely occur for the purpose of trying new food and wine. You read the New York Times cover to cover every weekend. Sometimes you even finish the crossword. At least once a month a couple you know ends up with their photo in the Style section.
You watch MSNBC and Rachel Maddow is your dream dinner guest. You regularly buy and then donate books to a local independent bookstore. Your favorite weekend activity involves sitting down with the new New Yorker after a day of outdoor activities. On Sundays, you season your cast iron skillets.
If Fabulicious is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
You love the finer things in life! Your favorite apron is a bedazzled leopard print with a ruffled hem. You have matching ones for your daughters. On Saturdays you have "GIRLS' NIGHT!" where you keep the pinot grigio flowing while old Bon Jovi tunes blast. After a couple glasses, your husband drives you and the ladies to Luckie's Karaoke Bar and for a moment, you feel young again. And oh, what a sweet moment it is--it brings wistful sigh to your lips and a twinkle to your eye.
Your best friends are also your worst enemies because they know you so well. You hate them when they're right, but love them when they support you. You jokingly call spaghetti "spaghett!" just to get on everyone's nerves.
For you, though, family is everything. You love spending weekends with everyone, having craft corners with the kids, dress-up parties, and crazy weekend cabin getaways where everyone can let it all hang out. At the end of the day, you're a simple person: you only want the best! It's not complicated, is it?
If Don't Fill Up on the Antipasto is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
Sometimes you accent your everyday conversations with over-ennunciated Italian to prove your heritage. Your best friends are nicknamed Gumba, Luig, GabbaGool, and The Godfather. You're a family-oriented person who loves your small-town neighborhood away from all of the urban hullabaloo--though you will go to Arthur Avenue to get the good bread when you have the chance. You own a sporty car and love to rev your engine and pretend to race people at red lights. Your favorite brewski (you don't say beer) is whatever's coldest and you don't have time for knowing what sort of red wine you like. Whichever one ya got!
You're not a huge hit in the kitchen, but you know how to put a few things together and make it semi-edible (just don't ask Uncle Vinny about that one time you made the meatballs!). Your favorite sports team is your religion and when they lose you just, well, sort of fall to pieces. Life is hard when your guys aren't #1, huh?
At the end of the day, sitting down to watch some local news while you figure out the coaching schedule for the peewee baseball squad is your bread and butter in life.
If My Father's Daughter is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
You love Martha Stewart, but find her craftiness utterly plebeian. You love Ina Garten and have pictures of her home in the Hamptons pasted in your Dream Diary. Your whole home is white, with touches of neutral pastel throw pillows here and there. You're not very happy but you hide it really well: it's all in the flair! You go the extra mile to make sure everything you have (and everything you do!) is absolutely the creme de la creme.
You pride yourself on your ability to speak multiple languages fluently, but you don't like to be showy about it. You window-shop at ETSY but find the quality of the crafts to be just so, ugh. Unrefined: that's it! Unrefined. Everything around you just feels so ho-hum. Sometimes you wonder if that's your own fault--am I an effigy or a human?--but when that feeling sets in, you get to work!
You work out like crazy, and make sure nary a hair is out of place. When you're with your friends, you try desperately to emote in a way that mirrors their own, but it's hard. Being folksy is not your forte, but you get an A for effort!
If If It Makes You Healthy is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
You love really cute wordplay: like the book's title! So clever! You ride your bike every Saturday to take a break from your normal 3-hour-a-day workout routine. You're a bit of a health freak, but you can't help yourself when there are multiple dessert options. "Just a taste!" you say, while you swipe another mini-tart off the table.
You're unmarried but hopeful that The One is out there--if only you just work a little bit harder! You put yourself out there, but maybe not enough. Maybe you should go to two singles mixers a week instead of one. Your friend Jennifer said she knows a really great guy, but he works at her local Whole Foods. You're not sure (though the discount on quinoa would be amazing!), but consider her offer.
You have six different boards on Pinterest (totally addicted!) but your "One Day..." dream wedding board is the only one you actually pin to. Late at night, you log into your The Knot profile, occasionally changing the wedding date and guy's name. This month, you believe you should only date guys named Jared. Guys named Jared are so reliable--Jared is like the architect of names (No one is actually an architect--they're only in the movies! You laugh at your own funny observation).
You bake cookies, contemplate eating one, and then immediately package them up for your coworkers. "Treats for my office peeps!" you yell the next morning, smiling maniacally.
If The Tammy Wynette Southern Cookbook is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
YEE HAW, y'all! You are an old school, down-home country guy or gal. Your favorite artist is Dolly Parton, but Tammy Wynette is totally second place in your heart. You never knew the days of petticoats, but you imagine that they were the best. You wear cowboy boots and frilly dresses (or smart jeans and a great gingham shirt) every day--this is your uniform. A variation on a theme!
You cook with your parents every Sunday--your dad loves chicken fried steak, but you just can't stand the deep-fried aspect of it. You won't say no to your mom's sausage gravy and biscuits at breakfast, though! Guilty pleasures are A-OK by you.
You have a really active social life: extracurricular activities aren't just for collegiates! You are a member of the local beautification committee and volunteer at an animal shelter on Saturday mornings. Your little sister is your best friend, though, and you spend every Friday night watching 90s romantic comedies while eating lo mein. Your favorite drink is a whisky sour--extra cherries when the cute bartender is working. You love flirting with this bartender and always get your drinks free if you can't find someone else to buy them for you.
Tailgates, local football games, and line-dancing are your favorite activities, and make you feel like real America is still alive and well. When you have a son you will name him Bud.
If Great Food, All Year Long is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
You spend most of your days reading. Food is nourishment for the body, but in its best form, it's feeds the soul as well. You are a philosophical thinker, and feel your own life experiences speak metaphorical volumes about the state of the world. You love to talk to people and give them advice. You have a moderately-impressive wine collection, and love a good port on a blustery February evening. Staring out into space, you imagine that the stars are symbolism for the opportunities we're all presented with and fail to take. You live in the city because you love the hustle and bustle of thousands of human bodies strategically maneuvering around each other at any given second.
You don't have many friends, but the few you do have are very dear. You often have extensive email conversations about the latest episode of This American Life or Fresh Air. Oh that Terry Gross! Sometimes when you're taking a mental break from your tedious but creative career, you listen to her questions and mute the response so that you can pretend you're having a conversation with Terry yourself. Your friends find you very wise and insightful. And your Shepherd's Pie is the stuff of legend.
Oh, you also know why the caged bird sings.
If Karma Cookbook is Your Favorite Celebrity Cookbook...
You used to do a lot of drugs in the 80s and picked this up hungover at The Strand one day. You've never opened it once. What the f**k even is this book? Macrobiotics? You find the book on your shelf after years of neglect. You put it in a box with several others and head down to The Strand to sell the books for some money to buy groceries for the week. After making back a paltry $27.59, you buy a pack of cigarettes and a Red Bull at Walgreens and call your best friend. Maybe you'll get some take-out thai tonight.
[Photo Credit: The Stanley Tucci Cookbook – Gallery Books; My Father's Daughter by Gwyneth Paltrow – Grand Central Publishing; Fabulicious! by Teresa Giudice – Running Press; The Tammy Wynette Southern Cookbook – Pelican Publishing Company; Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart by Maya Angelou – Random House; If It Makes You Healthy by Sheryl Crow – St. Martin's Press; Karma Cookbook by Boy George – Carroll &amp; Brown Publishers; Don't Fill Up on the Antipasto by Tony Danza – Simon &amp; Schuster]
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Widening the thematic scope without sacrificing too much of the claustrophobia that made the original 1979 Alien universally spooky Prometheus takes the trophy for this summer's most adult-oriented blockbuster entertainment. The movie will leave your mouth agape for its entire runtime first with its majestic exploration of an alien planet and conjectures on the origins of the human race second with its gross-out body horror that leaves no spilled gut to the imagination. Thin characters feel more like pawns in Scott's sci-fi prequel but stunning visuals shocking turns and grand questions more than make up for the shallow ensemble. "Epic" comes in many forms. Prometheus sports all of them.
Based on their discovery of a series of cave drawings all sharing a similar painted design Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green) are recruited by Weyland to head a mission to another planet one they believe holds the answers to the creation of life on Earth. Along for the journey are Vickers (Charlize Theron) the ruthless Weyland proxy Janek (Idris Elba) a blue collar captain a slew of faceless scientists and David (Michael Fassbender) HAL 9000-esque resident android who awakens the crew of spaceship Prometheus when they arrive to their destination. Immediately upon descent there's a discovery: a giant mound that's anything but natural. The crew immediately prepares to scope out the scene zipping up high-tech spacesuits jumping in futuristic humvees and heading out to the site. What they discover are the awe-inspiring creations of another race. What they bring back to the ship is what they realize may kill their own.
The first half of Prometheus could be easily mistaken for Steven Spielberg's Alien a sense of wonder glowing from every frame not too unlike Close Encounters. Scott takes full advantage of his fictional settings and imbues them with a reality that makes them even more tantalizing. He shoots the vistas of space and the alien planet like National Geographic porn and savors the interior moments on board the Prometheus full of hologram maps sleeping pods and do-it-yourself surgery modules with the same attention. Prometheus is beautiful shot in immersive 3D that never dampers Dariusz Wolski's sharp photography. Scott's direction seems less interested in the run-or-die scenario set up in the latter half of the film but the film maintains tension and mood from beginning to end. It all just gets a bit…bloodier.
Jon Spaihts' and Damon Lindelof's script doesn't do the performers any favors shuffling them to and fro between the ship and the alien construction without much room for development. Reveals are shoehorned in without much setup (one involving Theron's Vickers that's shockingly mishandled) but for the most part the ensemble is ready to chomp into the script's bigger picture conceits. Rapace is a physical performer capable of pulling off a grisly scene involving an alien some sharp objects and a painful procedure (sure to be the scene of the blockbuster season. Among the rest of the crew Fassbender's David stands out as the film's revelatory performance delivering a digestible ambiguity to his mechanical man that playfully toys with expectations from his first entrance. The creature effects in Prometheus will wow you but even Fassbender's smallest gesture can send the mind spinning. The power of his smile packs more of a punch than any facehugger.
Much like Lindelof's Lost Prometheus aims to explore the idea of asking questions and seeking answers and on Scott's scale it's a tremendous unexpected ride. A few ideas introduced to spur action fall to the way side in the logic department but with a clear mission and end point Prometheus works as a sweeping sci-fi that doesn't require choppy editing or endless explosions to keep us on the edge of our seats. Prometheus isn't too far off from the Alien xenomorphs: born from existing DNA of another creature the movie breaks out as its own beast. And it's wilder than ever.
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At the moment there are few greater clichés in the media than the freaking out single woman on the cusp of 30. Of course clichés are clichés for a reason worth exploring even through the lens of just one or two women as in Lola Versus. Unfortunately while the intention behind Lola Versus isn't that we should all be happily married by the age of 30 it still fits into the same rubric of all those "Why You're Not Married" books.
Lola (Greta Gerwig) has a gorgeous fiancé Luke (Joel Kinnaman) and they live in a giant loft together the kind of dreamy NYC real estate that seems to exist primarily in the movies. Just as they're planning their gluten-free wedding cake with a non-GMO rice milk-based frosting Luke dumps her. It's cruelly sudden — although Luke isn't a cruel man. Lola finds little comfort in the acerbic wit of her best friend the eternally single Alice (Zoe Lister-Jones) who is probably delighted to see her perfectly blonde best friend taken down a peg and into the murky world of New York coupling. Lola and Luke share a best friend Henry (Hamish Linklater) a messy-haired rumpled sweetheart who is kind and safe and the inevitable shelter for Lola's fallout. Her parents well-meaning and well-to-do hippie types feed her kombucha and try to figure out their iPads and give her irrelevant advice.
Lola Versus is slippery. Its tone careens between broad TV comedy and earnest dramedy almost as if Alice is in charge of the dirty zingers and Lola's job is to make supposedly introspective statements. Alice's vulgar non-sequiturs are tossed off without much relish and Lola's dialogue comes off too often as expository and plaintive. We don't need Lola to tell Henry "I'm vulnerable I'm not myself I'm easily persuaded" or "I'm slutty but I'm a good person!" (Which is by the way an asinine statement to make. One might even say she's not even that "slutty " she's just making dumb decisions that hurt those around her just as much as she's hurting herself.)
We know that she's a mess — that's the point of the story! It's not so much that a particularly acerbic woman wouldn't say to her best friend "Find your spirit animal and ride it until its d**k falls off " but that she wouldn't say it in the context of this movie. It's from some other movie over there one where everyone is as snarky and bitter as Alice. You can't have your black-hearted comedy and your introspective yoga classes. Is it really a stride forward for feminism that the clueless single woman has taken the place of the stoner man-child in media today? When Lola tells Luke "I'm taken by myself. I've gotta just do me for a while " it's true. But it doesn't sound true and it doesn't feel true.
In one scene Lola stumbles on the sidewalk and falls to the ground. No one asks her if she's okay or needs help; she simply gets up on her own and goes on her way. It's a moment that has happened to so many people. It's humiliating and so very public but of course you just gotta pick yourself up and get where you're going. In this movie it's a head-smackingly obvious metaphor. In one of the biggest missteps of the movie Jay Pharoah plays a bartender that makes the occasional joke while Lola is waiting tables at her mom's restaurant. His big line at the end is "And I'm your friend who's black!" It would have been better to leave his entire character on the cutting room floor than attempt such a half-hearted wink at the audience.
Lister-Jones and director Daryl Wein co-wrote the screenplay for Lola Versus as they did with 2009's Breaking Upwards. Both films deal with the ins and outs of their own romantic relationship in one way or another. Breaking Upwards a micro-budget indie about a rough patch in their relationship was much more successful in tone and direction. Lola Versus has its seeds in Lister-Jones' experience as a single woman in New York and is a little bit farther removed from their experiences. Lola Versus feels like a wasted opportunity. Relatively speaking there are so few movies getting made with a female writer or co-writer that it almost feels like a betrayal to see such a tone-deaf portrayal of women onscreen. What makes it even more disappointing is how smart and likable everyone involved is and knowing that they could have made a better movie.

In the cinematic desert that is the January-February movie-release schedule one gains a greater appreciation for mere competence. And that’s precisely what you’ll get with Man on a Ledge a mid-budget thriller with modest aspirations and genuine popcorn appeal. Sam Worthington (Avatar Clash of the Titans) stars as Nick Cassidy a former New York City cop wrongly convicted for the theft of a prized diamond. After exhausting all judicial avenues for exoneration he takes the unusual and seemingly desperate next step of planting himself on a ledge outside the penthouse of midtown’s Roosevelt Hotel and threatening to jump. An NYPD psychologist (Elizabeth Banks) is summoned to talk him down unaware that Nick harbors an ulterior motive. From his perch above midtown he is secretly orchestrating a scheme to take revenge against the corrupt corporate chieftain (Ed Harris) who engineered his demise and prove his innocence once and for all.
Director Asger Leth making his U.S. feature-film debut with Man on a Ledge keeps the pace brisk and never allows the tone to stray into self-seriousness which is crucial for a movie whose premise is so devoutly ridiculous. The script from Pablo F. Fenjves provides enough feints and twists to keep us engaged. Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez aren’t the most believable of couples but there’s a screwball charm to their comic routine as amateur thieves charged with aiding Nick’s scheme. (Leth can’t resist inserting an entirely superfluous – but nonetheless greatly appreciated – scene of the criminally gorgeous Rodriguez stripping down to a thong in the middle of a heist.) Worthington makes for a likable populist protagonist even if his Australian accent betrays him on copious occasions and Harris’ disturbingly emaciated frame lends an added menace to his devious plutocrat villain.

Enigmatic and deliberate Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy makes no reservations while unraveling its heady spy story for better or worse. The film based on the bestselling novel by John Le Carre is purposefully perplexing effectively mirroring the central character George Smiley's (Gary Oldman) own mind-bending investigation of the British MI6's mole problem. But the slow burn pacing clinical shooting style and air of intrigue only go so far—Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy sports an incredible cast that can't dramatically translate the movie's impenetrable narrative. Almost from the get go the movie collapses under its own weight.
After a botched mission in Hungary that saw his colleague Jim (Mark Strong) gunned down in the streets Smiley and his boss Control (John Hurt) are released from the "Circus" (codename for England's Secret Intelligence Service). But soon after Smiley is brought back on board as an impartial observer tasked to uncover the possible infiltration of the organization. The former agent already dealing with the crippling of his own marriage attempts to sift through the history and current goings on of the Circus narrowing his hunt down to four colleagues: Percy aka "Tinker" (Toby Jones) Bill aka "Tailor" (Colin Firth) Roy aka "Soldier" (Ciaran Hinds) and Toy aka "Poor Man" (David Dencik). Working with Peter (Benedict Cumberbatch) a conflicted younger member of the service and Ricki (Tom Hardy) a rogue agent who has information of his own Smiley slowly uncovers the muddled truth—occasionally breaking in to his own work place and crossing his own friends to do so.
Describing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as dense doesn't seem complicated enough. The first hour of the monster mystery moves at a sloth's pace trickling out information like the tedious drips of a leaky faucet. The talent on display is undeniable but the characters Smiley included are so cold that a connection can never be made. TTSS sporadically jumps around from past to present timelines without any indication: a tactic that proves especially confusing when scenes play out in reoccurring locations. It's not until halfway through that the movie decides to kick into high gear Smiley's search for a culprit finally becoming clear enough to thrill. A film that takes its time is one thing but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does so without any edge or hook.
What the movie lacks in coherency it makes up for in style and thespian gravitas. Director Tomas Alfredson has assembled some of the finest British performers working today and they turn the script's inaccessible spy jargon into poetry. Firth stands out as the group's suave slimeball a departure from his usual nice guy roles. Hardy assures us he's the next big thing once again as the agency's resident moppet a lover who breaks down after a romantic fling uncovers horrifying truth. Oldman is given the most difficult task of the bunch turning the reserved contemplative Smiley into a real human. He half succeeds—his observational slant in the beginning feels like an extension of the movie's bigger problems but once gets going in the second half of the film he's quite a bit of fun.
Alfredson constructs Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy like a cinematic architect each frame dripping with perfectly kitschy '70s production design and camera angles that make the spine tingle. He creates paranoia through framing similar to the Coppola's terrifying The Conversation but unlike that film TTSS doesn't have the characters or story to match. The movie strives to withhold information and succeeds—too much so. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy wants us to solve a mystery with George Smiley but it never clues us in to exactly why we should want to.

The Oscar-winning actress broke into acting in the 1960s on the Broadway stage, before going on to film some of the most iconic movies of all time.
To wish Dunaway a very special 70th birthday, WENN has compiled 10 fascinating facts about the onscreen siren:
- She was born Dorothy Faye Dunaway on a farm in Bascom, Florida in 1941.
- The actress has been married twice - from 1974 to 1979 to Peter Wolf, lead singer of rock group The J. Geils Band, and from 1984 to 1987 to British photographer Terry O'Neill.
- Dunaway has one son with O'Neill called Liam.
- Her breakthrough role was in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, which catapulted her to superstardom opposite Warren Beatty. She saw off competition from Natalie Wood and Beatty's sister Shirley MacLaine to land the part.
- She auditioned for the role of Daisy in The Great Gatsby, but it went to Mia Farrow. She later called her autobiography Looking For Gatsby: My Life.
- Dunaway won a Best Actress Academy Award for 1976's Network.
- In 1977 she was offered the part of Lillian Hellman in Julia - she turned it down and the role went to Jane Fonda, who picked up a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.
- In 1996 she converted to Roman Catholicism.
- Dunaway is one of only four actresses to win both an Oscar for Best Actress, as well as a Razzie Award for Worst Actress. The other stars boasting the same dubious honour are Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock and Liza Minnelli.
- She appears in both versions of The Thomas Crown Affair. Dunaway starred in the original 1968 film, as well as 1999's remake with Pierce Brosnan.